Well, it seems that the health insurance companies might have actually ticked off Congress to the point of taking action. In the last week or so two developments have unfolded that seem to be a direct response to the aggressive anti-reform tactics of the health insurance industry. In one development both houses of Congress have taken up the issue of dropping a decades old exemption for health insurance providers to antitrust laws. In another development the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced that some form of public option would likely be in the healthcare reform bill that the Senate will vote on later this year.

While there has been stiff opposition to the “public option” from Republicans and moderate Democrats almost nobody is really publicly trying to make an issue of eliminating the antitrust loophole for healthcare providers. The bills being considered by both houses of Congress are expected to pass and when consolidated be signed into law by President Obama. This will close a decades old loophole that allowed healthcare providers to have effective monopolies within markets. While the healthcare industry has publicly said this legislation is unnecessary it is also strongly opposed to its passage making the argument that it is the beginning of a slippery slope of government control over medicine.

Despite the previous opposition to the “public option” there are now proposals being discussed that would effectively add a public option to the Reid bill that might be able to carry the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass the bill. The plan announced by Senate Majority Leader Reid in its current form is widely considered to be unlikely to garner the needed 60 votes but there have been counter proposals that would allow states to opt-in rather than opt-out of a public plan that are gaining some soft support from moderates in the Democratic Party who would be key to breaking any Republican filibuster and getting the bill to a vote on the floor of the Senate. If a public option could be passed in the Senate it is almost guaranteed to pass in the House and come out of conference committee in a form acceptable to both houses of Congress and the White House.

Many Washington insiders point to the preemptive report released by the insurance industry in response to the bill sponsored by Senator Max Baucus that came out of the Senate Finance Committee as the catalyst for the newfound life of a possible “public option”. That and some tactical talking points on the Democratic side emphasizing the ability of states to opt-out of the program seem to be giving the “public option” new life on Capitol Hill.

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